Page 14 of The BoneKeeper's Daughter

What?I question him.I smile sometimes…I am defensive, and his response is the sense of him holding up his hands and locking his lips closed.

Little Keeper, I say nothing. I was simply surprised. It is…nice…to feel you happy.

Oh.I don’t know how else to respond. My heart clenches in a strange sort of skipping movement that I don’t understand; Lorcan does not usually say such things. The room has gone quiet again while the children and their teacher watch me, and I shrug helplessly, shaking my head in amusement.

“They are giving me a hard time,” I say dryly, gently touching the bracers that run up my arms in explanation. The children exchange long glances, before one tiny boy — the smallest in the room by far — raises a quivering hand.

“H-h-how?” He forces his question out, barely breathing, and his eyes go wild when I walk to his desk, then sink to my heels in front of him. Reaching around my neck, I pull Lorcan’s bones forward, laying them on the smooth wood before me.

“Well. This one is making fun of me right now.” Lorcan huffs in denial, but the Hunter and the baker in my hair grin. “And now the ones in my hair are joining in. Which is unfair. They are ganging up on me.” Concentrating just on the little boy in front of me, I murmur conspiratorially, “Do you think that’s just of them?”

Reaching out as though he was about to pet a pit viper, the little boy gently pokes one of Lorcan’s teeth, then jerks his hand back, looking simultaneously proud of himself and sick to his stomach at his bravery. A low murmur of appreciation for his courage runs through the room like fire, and I have to force myself not to smile. He’ll live off this moment for weeks, I imagine.

“No,” he whispers, a sound that is almost no sound at all.

Keeper!Lorcan is indignant, which somehow makes me grin again. This time it is less hesitant, and doesn’t feel like it is ripping away pieces of my soul. The boy’s cheeks bunch into curves when he smiles back at me, and pokes Lorcan again, made bold by my reaction.BoneKeeper! I am a Protector, not a…a cat to be petted.

Are you afraid you will purr, my Protector?There is no response, and I feel a strange pit in my stomach at having misstepped somehow, though I have no idea where.Lorcan? I’m…I…

The boy distracts me by saying very,veryquietly, but firmly, directly to my bone necklace, “It’s…it’snotfair. Youshouldn’tgang up on her.” Looking up, he meets my white eyes unflinchingly. “I’ll be on your team, BoneKeeper. I’m Marrin.”

“Thank you, Marrin.” I almost choke on the words, my throat suddenly feeling desperately tight. He holds out a violently trembling hand, breathing shallowly, and I press my own against it, palm to palm in the sign of a pact accepted. Marrin stays stockstill, but looks as though he is about to be sent to the Reaping, and I smile softly at him. “I appreciate your courage, and am proud to have such a brave soul on my side.”

The youngster straightens, chest puffing out, shoulders rolled back, and nods seriously, shooting dark looks around the room at the other children, as though daring them to say a thing. The ferocity in his little body makes my eyes well up unexpectedly, a single tear falling down my cheek, and the entire class inhales in complete shock. Even Marrin stops breathing for a long, long moment, before I brush the water from my face, leaving it glistening on my fingertip.

“A gift for you. From my heart in gratitude. My blessings on you,my kind Protector. Of dreams, and pure water, and sweet memories.” And I reach out a hand to lay on his forehead.

“You shouldn’t waste the water on someone like me, BoneKeeper,” he replies, almost fearfully, and I frown. Standing abruptly, I walk back to the front of the room. Hollis is almost as white as my eyes, swaying in place at her desk, looking caught in a nightmare. Turning to face the class, I straighten, donning the persona of the BoneKeeper as one would a masque or cloak.

“Waste?Waste?I would like to make something very clear to you all.” Letting the chill of bone into my words, I can hear the hollow ringing of them in the stone classroom. But they must hear it from the Keeper’s voice, not mine, or they will not believe me. “Are you listening?” They nod in unison, fear heavy on sweet, soft faces still rounded with childhood even in these hungry times, eyes glistening, fighting back tears that they know not to shed. “You are worth every drop of pure water in this world.” It is clearly not what they expected to hear, and the biting fervor in my voice is a marrow vow. “I would wring every ounce of water from my own skin to keep you from going thirsty. Do you understand me? You,each of you, is worth a well, and more. If I cry for you, it is deserved, and I will gift you each tear gladly.”

I want to say more,needto say more, but the bone walls call out to me from the open door, and I tilt my head to listen.

“Ms. Hollis. Children. I apologize. I am needed elsewhere. The Hunters have returned.”

A TINY FRACTURE

WREN

At my words the children burst from their seats, a joyful ruckus of thumping chairs and knocked over books as they rush from the room. A few yell over-the-shoulder good-byes to Hollis, but most, in their haste, simply explode from the room like iced branches in the winter. Hollis shoots a worried look my way, then follows them from the room, shouting instructions. Only Marrin glances longingly at the door before carefully approaching me and pausing in front of me.

“BoneKeeper?” he asks respectfully, waiting for me to turn my head towards him.

“Yes, my little Protector?” I reply, affection clear in my words, and at the sound, he straightens and smiles, pride clear on his thin little face.

“Will you be alright if I go see the Hunters, or do you need me?” Determination is written in every line of his body; he stands in front of me like a soldier awaiting orders. And something very new, and very painful, cracks my heart into pieces, tiny spiderwebs of longing so crippling I can barely breath.

“I–” I have to clear my throat to continue. “I appreciate yourthoughtfulness, Marrin. I will be fine on my own. But thank you for thinking of me.”

He nods seriously. “If youdoneed me, you can just call for me and I’ll come. I’m in the Third Ring of the village. Marrin, Caris’s son.” Seeing my eyes widen in response, he grins, a lightning bright flash of happiness breaking through clouds. “They let me in the second ring school because I’m smart. Ms. Hollis says I’ll be in the first ring school by next year. I’ll try to make it there sooner. It will help if I’m closer to you.”

The little fractures in my heart turn to canyons at his words, and I can’t speak for a long, long moment. “Won’t your mother mind being so far from you?” I ask gently, not wanting to turn down the gift he is giving me. He stares down at his shoes, drags a scuffed toe through the dirt on the floor.

“She passed in the last Storm season, Keeper. It is only me and my aunt. And she won’t mind me gone. One less mouth to feed.” The steely determination is still there, but now it’s melting into sadness. His voice drops to the hush of early morning, hard truths being faced with bravery beyond his years. “It would be a relief, I think. I am not her child, and these are hungry times.”

Without thinking, I run my hands through my hair, along my braids. I don’t even need to ask — the bones I am looking for loosen before my fingers touch them, and I kneel in the dirt before him. “Well, now Marrin. I have some friends I would like you to meet. They are...very dear to me.” Holding out the bones balanced carefully on my palms, I point to the first grouping. “Before she went to bone, she was a baker in this village.” She murmurs quietly under my fingers, and I smile; Marrin tilts his head, looking at me curiously. “I’m sorry. Of course.” I offer the bones, and explain to Marrin. “She says to let you know she was notabaker, but ratherthebaker. The best of the lot.” He grins again in response, but still looks perplexed. “She has seven children in the village, has always been a mother. And came to me when I needed her most. She is asking if you would do her the honor of wearing her. If you need me, she will tell the rest of the bones in the village, and I will come to you if I am able.”

His eyes are wide, startled, but he only says, “What…what ifyouneedme, BoneKeeper?”

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